Just Another American Francophile

Month: June 2013

French Word of the Day: l’homosexualité (lome-oh sex-ewe-al-it-eh)- homosexuality

I had never been to a Gay Pride Parade, and I figured it was about time after 25 years. If you don’t love color, you should probably skip this post. My friends and I each took a different color of the rainbow:

Rocio took this picture, but she was a lovely shade of pink. (Clothing-wise, not skin-wise.)

The Pride Parade is easily one of the happiest parades I’ve ever been to. Everyone was laughing, dancing and screaming- it was like Disney World with less expensive merchandise.

I’ve never seen so many things handed out in a single parade. By the end, we had no less than 25 of each object: temporary tattoos, bracelets, flyers, pins, frisbees, flags… Whoever has to clean up the streets is having fun right now.

I took quite a few pictures. Unfortunately, I’m short, so half the pictures are full of the hands, arms and heads of everyone in front of me. Okay, now full speedo ahead!

My back’s been in pain from it for about the past hour and a half. Whoever said “complaining never helps” is WRONG, because I’ve been lying on the couch saying, “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow” without stop, and I’m feeling much better now. (It’s also possible my Tylenol finally kicked in, but that’s a minor detail.)

After my rough chemo session, I did develop two bruises on my arms.

Check out these bad boys.

I’ve spent most of my week figuring out how to both cover my arms completely and dress for the warm weather. They’re opposing goals, and the warm weather has been winning.

Other than the bruise and the vomiting, I have been getting better. It’s a slower process this time, but I still managed to have pancakes on Sunday. I mean, they were whole wheat, vegan and healthy, but I put syrup on them. That counts.

I will start writing more soon, but my computer’s acting up. It keeps turning off and then insisting that’s it’s December 31st, 2000 when it finally turns back on. This is probably indicative of some kind of expense malfunction. Or possibly my computer is a time machine…

I was trying to get a decent photo for the blog while sitting by myself. I tried to only take pictures when no one was looking, which turned out to be difficult in a room full of people. I’m sure it’s not everyday the nurses get to see a patient taking selfies while receiving an IV.

This chemo was the least fun. (To be fair, no chemo session is “fun.” They’re rated on a scale from “blah” to “Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.”) I passed out on the coach when I got home. My mom- being the fabulous woman she is- did my laundry while I was sleeping.

This morning, I woke up several times to get sick. I decided my fellow commuters might not appreciate me throwing up on them, and stayed home from work.

French Word(s) of the Day:leservice client (luh serh-vees clee-ont)- customer service

I recently got a promotion at work. (This is why I haven’t updated in a month.) I now work for the travel department, and I love it. It’s busy, it’s crazy, everyone’s insane, but it’s great. Travel is the best!

Well, sometimes travel is the best. My latest chemo experience spilled over into my work and personal life. I was supposed to go to my brother’s graduation, but there was a problem with chemo scheduling. They had to give me my chemo the day before his graduation. As a result, I had to cancel my flight and miss it.

Now that I’ve had to cancel my flight, I’m trying to get a refund. This is proving to be a very difficult experience. I have a theory that the airline purposefully tries to sabotage all refund requests so that they never have to refund anything.

Long story short, I had to call customer service today… an AUTOMATED customer service number. (My favorite online comic did a comic that accurately describes the horrific automated customer service experience.) My conversion with the customer service robot went like this:

Robot: Hello. What would you like to do today?

Me: Real Person! Person!

Robot: I’m sorry; I don’t understand. You can check a flight… [twelve more options]… or refunds. [None of the options are “speak to a live person.”]

Me: Refund.

Robot: I’m sorry; I didn’t hear you. Please repeat that.

Me: REFUND

Robot: You would like to go to refunds?

Me: YES.

Robot: I’m sorry; I didn’t hear you.

Me: YES YES YES YES YES YES

Robot: You options are: check the status or make a new request.

Me: Check status

Robot: You can check the status online. Go to our website. Can I help you with anything else?

Me: AGENT

Man: I’m sorry; I think you want to speak to an agent.

Me: YES

Man: I can’t connect you to an agent until I know more information. [Repeats menu.]

It took the robot 5 more minutes to connect me to customer service. I was then put on hold for 10 minutes.

Man: Hello! Thank you for using our airline. How can I help you today?

Me: I’m trying to get the refunds to work, and the site doesn’t recognize my refund number.

Man: No, but if you’d like, there’s a feedback portion on our website!

You know I’m going to the feedback portion of their website. I’ve got a LOT of feed to back.

The good thing is that I get to call them back and go through it all again sometime during my work hours tomorrow.

I drew this while I was on hold:

Sidenote: My Aunt Kathy went to my chemo session with me because my Mom was at Brendan’s graduation, and we had a lovely time! She brought me pain au chocolat because she knows the way to a girl’s heart.